Disruption Now

Nipsey Hussle was in many ways the personification of the American dream. He started off in the streets, joining the gang the 60s (Crips), going to prison but eventually turning his life around and having success as a rapper and entrepreneur. He went from hustling on the corner to owning the same corner he used to hustle on. When he became famous he didn’t move out or stop coming, instead, he came more became more accessible. He started STEM classes for kids, provided jobs for local youth and showed hustlers there is another path. He eventually gained the respect of all gangs; crips and bloods alike. Nonetheless, his life ended in senseless violence from a member of his same gang. His death sparked many questions:  Why are we so accepting or desensitized to violence?  Should Nipsey have stayed so close and accessible when he started to become famous? Was the more going on behind his death?

Andrew Gillum was not supposed to be the Democratic nominee for Florida governor. For the entire century nearly every gubernatorial candidate Democrat and Republican were millionaires. So when the political class, Democrats and Republicans saw he was running they all said he would lose. No way the son of a construction worker and bus driver will become the nominee.. He proved them wrong the nomination, along with the hearts and minds of millions. Though he lost the governor’s race by less than half a percentage point, his journey is not over. We explore his journey to this point and his path forward in the current political climate.

Governing is hard but leading a diverse nation is even harder. More homogeneous democracies often have greater levels of social welfare (e.g. Sweden, Switzerland)  Can anything be done about the discomfort some people will feel in diverse settings? Do  diverse societies invite or create divisions that lead to scapegoating, which prevents underlying problems from being acknowledged and/or solved? Or does division and scapegoating always exist?

Growth in urban communities has been accelerating in the last decade. Areas that were for years considered unattractive and crime ridden have become the areas of economic growth and activity. This has had the unintended consequence (or intended consequences depending on your perspective) of dislocating poorer black and brown communities who have been there for decades. Our Disruptor of the week Terry Booty discusses how his company, Urban Farmers tackles the issues. Urban Farmers seeks to successfully bridge the gap between corporate objectives and community needs by focusing on workforce housing and sustainable community development.

We are used to hearing scandals involving the recruitment of NCAA athletes. However, I have never heard of a scandal involving students posing as athletes. That is until actresses Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin, along with multiple wealthy parents, paid a middleman (through a fake non profit) over 25 million dollars to bribe admissions officers and coaches to admit their kids as student athletes. Colleges will often admit athletes and lower the standards providing often sub par educational opportunities while exploiting  the college athletes.

The human brain is wired to be bias. The science is clear, everyone is bias without exception. Our minds tend to default to what we think know or what makes sense to us versus exploring the facts of each situation. While more information is available to us than ever before, society’s focus on insta twitter and instagram news allows everyone to conclude they are right without exception. Exploration, investigation and due process become secondary and all the while social media through programming and artificial intelligence  continues to confirm our own biases. How do we break this cycle?

The fear of socialism is nothing new in America; But beyond the name what actually is socialism? How did the word socialism become such a tainted word? Now with Bernie Sanders and AOC socialism gaining in popularity. The ideas and the concepts around some so-claims have been around and are even part of the American fabric just as capitalism is. This current socialist scare isn't about socialism, it's about challenging the status quo.

How do accusations of racism and assault affect us all? From pics of black faces to threats from publications, this past week has been quite the show for politicians, actors, and billionaires alike.